The Rise of the Red Hood
by Arem
Summary: tentative expansion of 'Jason's dead". Jason's dead, and really...so is Nightwing.
1. Prologue

January 16, 2012

 _This isn't how it was supposed to happen!_ Wally's thoughts raced as he fought frantically against the emotions drowning him. Batman had revealed to the team that the second Robin, Jason, had died. Nightwing was AWOL, and Wally was freaking out.

Joker had killed Jason, and now Joker had mysteriously turned up dead too. They had proof that it hadn't been Batman who had killed him; and that was actually what had him worried.

Because if it hadn't been Batman, it must have been Nightwing. Oh, everyone was denying it right now, but Wally wasn't stupid.

Wally knew that no matter how angry Dick had been at Batman for the replacement, he liked the little twerp who had taken his mothers nickname(Dick's words, not Wally's). And Wally knew exactly how far Nightwing would go if he felt he had to. It didn't really surprise him, to be honest. From the first time Wally had met the cheery hero, he knew how fragile Dick's psyche was. He had lost his parents, lost his whole circus family, had watched countless people die as Robin, Had recently been fired and replaced by the man who had said he'd always be there, and had now lost his brother. It didn't seem so crazy that Nightwing would kill the clown when you put it in perspective. With all the psycho had put him through it's amazing it hadn't happened before. 'Beware the fury of a patient man.' Wally guessed.

So everyone was sure Nightwing was just grieving, but Wally was sure something more sinister had occurred.

Unfortunately, no one would listen to him until it was too late.

 ** _AN: so I'm finally gonna post this. I haven't finished writing it, and I'm not sure where I am gonna take it... I have a timeline mapped out in a tentative fashion, but I wan't your imput! Comment, PM me, let me know what you would like to see!_**

 ** _as always, this is un beta'd and I will edit when it's all finished._**


	2. Chapter 1

August 1, 2014. Mount Justice, 4:35 est

POV: with the team.

"This is your new mission." Batman looked out over the younger superheroes. A picture popped up next to him. "I'm sure you've all heard of the Red Hood. Well, now we need you to go after him. He is ruthless, and extremely intelligent. No one has been able to catch him. yet. We have intel that suggests he will be in Tokyo for a weapons exchange. You will zeta to the city to be there too. This may be your only chance. Don't mess it up." And with that the Bat was gone.

For a moment no one said anything.

"He wants us to go after the Red Hood? What is he thinking?" Batgirl spluttered.

The expression on everyone's faces showed they agreed.

"No one in the League has ever got him, what makes them think we can?" Rocket, or Raquel, asked.

"Cause Red Ho-never mind, you don't know that yet." Impulse cut himself off. Sometimes it was hard being from the future. Most of the time, everyone ignored him... but...

"Red Hood what? Is this a good plan? Do we catch him?" Robin interrogated.

The speedster shook his head silently.

"Sorry, dude, can't tell you."

"At least tell us if anything comes of this mission. Do we get him?" Batgirl joined in.

"Please, don't make me say anything." Bart looked around wildly, "Aqualad, help me!"

"I too wish to know. Surely it will not harm anything." The atlantian said with a thoughtful look.

"You'll catch him eventually... but you'll wish you hadn't." Bart said hesitantly. Despite everyone's cajoling, he would say no more on the matter: just stared at the hooded figure on the screen in front of them.

_- _ **this is supposed to be a linebreak, but I don't know what I'm doing.**_

Tokyo, Japan. 5:00 pm est. 6:00 am jst.

POV: Red Hood.

Red Hood crouched in the darkness behind a shipping container. He twirled a tanto between his fingers in a lazy motion. He waited.

The Young Justice team would arrive soon. He would give them a present, take the weapons he needed, and disappear. Just like always.

His comm unit crackled in his ear and his temporary partner's voice came through.

"The shipment will arrive in 2 and a half minutes. This end's clear."

"Copy. All's well on the north side." He whispered back before falling silent once more. The team should be there any second. He watched the meeting site intently. A hardly noticeable yellow blur alerted him to the fact they were getting into position. He pressed a button on his phone to scan for life signs. It showed the whole team, and every one's place.

This was just too easy.

Two short clicks from his comm told him it was go time. And sure enough, a semi truck pulled to a stop in the middle of the abandoned space. Four men got out of the cab, each carrying an m4 carbine. On the screen the life signs of the team remained still.

Or as still as they got, in any case. For a covert team they had never been very stealthy.

He waited for his partner to make the first move in. After all, Deathstroke was a wildcard the team had not planned for. Red Hood had been very careful in keeping their alliance a secret. He had succeeded very well it seemed.

Not that it would matter for much longer.

_- _ **this is supposed to be a linebreak, but I don't know what I'm doing.**_

POV: Aqualad

'is everyone in position?' Aqualad inquired.

Everyone gave an affirmative.

'I see the truck coming.' Miss Martian reported. A few seconds later an eighteen wheeler pulled into the clear area. 4 men with assault rifles unloaded from the front; two moving to guard the back of the large vehicle, two staying near the front.

'Wait for the Red Hood arrive.' The Atlantian ordered, sensing Kid Flash preparing to move in. 'Remember, this may be our only chance, we cannot afford to make mistakes.'

'Is that him?' Rocket asked as a shadowy figure stepped out from between crates.

'Hold.' Aqualad squinted, 'That doesn't look like Red Hood.'

For one, there was no hood. Whoever it was, was also too tall. The costume was metallic and….orange? The only villain they knew of that wore a uniform like that was Deathstroke the Terminator. This fact was confirmed when he stepped fully out of the darkness.

'What do we do?' Batgirl asked.

'Contact Batman.' Aqualad ordered. 'Be careful everyone, we'll have to play this by ear.'

"Good morning gentlemen." Deathstroke spoke from his position across from Aqualad.

The gunmen startled, each turning to point their weapons at the masked figure.

"Look, man." One man spoke up after a moment, "We don't want any trouble. We're meeting someone here and then we'll be outta your way. We didn't know you needed the space."

"Didn't my partner tell you I was coming along?" The mercenary asked in a haughty tone that didn't quite mask his confusion.

"No. I didn't." A new voice echoed from a shipping container near Kid Flash. "See, I had a few surprises of my own, Deathstroke." The accented voice came from the opposite direction.

"I trained you and you're using it to play tricks?" Deathstroke demanded the disembodied Red Hood.

'That's a new development.' Robin thought across the mindlink.

"Like you said. You trained me. Past tense." The voice came from the newly parked semi's speaker system.

"Which means you've outlived your usefulness." This statement came from right above Deathstroke.

Before anyone could react, a gunshot went off from right above Aqualad. Deathstroke fell to the ground, a bullet hole in the center of his face mask.

'Move in!' Aqualad signaled before leaping up to climb the container beside him. He caught sight of a cape disappearing over the other edge and an abandoned sniper rifle. He glanced down to see the team fighting the four gunmen.

'Red Hood is in the wind.' Aqualad relayed as he followed the assassin over the side of the container. Instead of running away as expected, Red Hood ran straight into the fight. He flipped over Kid Flash and dodged Artemis' and Blue Beetles attacks while throwing some kind of gas bomb at Zatanna that rendered her unable to speak. He made it to the semi at about the time the team finished with the gunmen. He ran around to the back and into the trailer.

'Proceed with caution.' Aqualad warned the team members who gathered around the back of the truck.

"Listen, Red Hood, put your weapons down and we can take you in quietly." Superboy called to the still figure. Everyone had weapons pointed in his direction.

Red Hood had a gun in one hand, the other had was holding something that looked like a grenade. He chuckled low in his throat.

"Lesson one:" he spoke, raising his head so they could see the mask beneath his hood. "Never walk into a place you can't get out of." He dropped the grenade.

Rocket enclosed those nearby in an energy bubble, expecting an explosion.

It never came.

Red Hood stood in front of a newly created portal. He gave a mocking salute and stepped through. It closed after him.

"That went well." Kid Flash commented, stepping away from the group. He picked up the dropped canister, examining it's grenade like appearance. "How did he teleport with this? Zatanna, is there a way to find where he went?"

'Not fast enough that you could catch up to him. Sorry.' Zatanna spoke in their heads. 'I still can't speak.'

"Well. What do we do about Deathstroke?" Artemis rasped, walking towards the corpse.

"We can't leave without collecting evidence, this is a crime scene." Robin stepped forward.

"I'm not going to be solving the assassins death." Kid Flash retorted.

"Don't you get it? Anyone good enough to take down Deathstroke the terminator is dangerous enough for League investigation."

"So start investigating, Boy Wonder."

"I only brought combat gear. I wasn't expecting a murder. Or assassination, since it was Red Hood."

"We will work on your preparedness at the batcave." Batman materialized behind his newest protégé. "For now you may all go back to Mount Justice. The Flash and I will take care of things here." The indicated speedster nodded grimly. "Write up your mission reports as soon as you arrive back at the Harbor. I will discuss it with you whenever I return." With that the Bat left in a whirl of his cape. The man in red shook his head gazing after the other vigilante.

"You guys did good considering the circumstances. Can you give me just a quick rundown of what happened before you go?"


End file.
